Briar Fox in a Jirsa 210.
***What Are You Smoking, August 2025?***
- Thread starter JimInks
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Classic Burley Kake in this Savinelli Eleganza 310KS. Iced tea.
Singularis,
The incense quest is alot of fun.
A friend gave Kendal Flake to me, saying that it was in the genre of incenselike blends, which he called also "floral" blends. The tin note was like old tobacco, a horse, alittle perfumey, and something like chocolate/coffee/caramel/anise. The smoke became thicker and stronger as I smoked it, reminding me a little of molasses. The smoke was like the tin note minus the horse and perfume. So it didn't remind me of incense, nor particularly of flowers, unless you count the coffee/anise smell as floral.
I never had Balkan Supreme, although Balkan Sasieni and GH Balkan didn't remind me of incense. Sasieni was like leather, and GH Balkan was like vinegar/BBQ/Ketchup with a horse body smell.
From my personal experience, what some reviewers call incenselike blends are borderline incenselike at best for my palette. I'm not ruling out the incense notes being there, but my palatte or mind isn't sensitive enough to that issue to pick it up very strongly. Then you have the issue that some pipers emphatically say that certain pipe blends don't smell like incense that other pipers emphatically say do.
For the church incense experience, out of what I tried I would recommend Moroccan Bazaar, Indonesian Kemenyan Kelembak, and Esoterica Margate. I imagine that Esoterica Penzance and a couple other blends that I haven't tried are like that too. However, in making those recommendations, I need caveats. One is that Moroccan Bazaar I think is a great smelling/tasting aromatic, and an incense flavor is deliberately added to it. However, I couldn't clearly pick it out as incense, even though another person who got my room note could identify it as incense. And I smoked it right after a church service with incense. At most the blend's incense note for me was like the hard sweet black and other-colored candy gum drops that I ate in between smokes of the blend.
A quarter of the way through this bowl of year 2014 Sam Gawith Best Brown Flake in a straight smooth brown 1933-1945 Comoy’s patent Grand Slam 159 *4 apple with a tapered black vulcanite stem. Ice water and bergs is my drink.
Five Brothers in a Tekin meerschaum.
PS Luxury Twist Flake in a mid 1980’s James Upshall P Lovat.
Now smoking Wilke 10 Downing Street in an undated straight, smooth flame grain Wessex Standard billiard with a brown accent on the tapered black vulcanite stem.
Thanks for the info!V.F. Cherrywood Morta filled with Lane Ltd Macanudo plus a pinch of cigar leaf (from a Southern Draw Manzanita). Wow, this is a pretty nice combo -- it really amps up the Macanudo light aromatic. I'm glad I still have another tin of Macanudo, since I don't believe it's available anymore.
Drink is iced coffee, black. Gold Star Celebes/Sulawesi.
@JimInks You said you hadn't tried their Sulawesi. It's fantastic, and different from both the Yemen Mocha High Grown and the Peruvian Machu Picchu. I can't necessary describe the aromatic nuances ("no rough edges!" ha ha) but it's very high quality, brews a very dark, almost black color, devoid of any bitterness. I feel good recommending it to you, considering you like your cofffee neat. It's absolutely a perfect straight black coffee, in my opinion, and again, is unique compared to the others.
Ryback with perique in a Castello
13hrs on the truck today 
Toscano Antico while I chill outside and prepare for bed soon...
Toscano Antico while I chill outside and prepare for bed soon...
Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed response! I’m actually smoking my experimental incense blend right now (I had enough for two bowls). I agree with you that this doesn’t really smell all that much like church incense — neither the individual components nor the two mixed together — and I’m not sure I’d really enjoy a blend that was basically church incense in a pipe. But I can’t shake that sometimes a bowl with Latakia and Orientals evokes incense. Must be a combination of the creosote, wood, and whatever herbs and essences are used to make Latakia.
HU Edward G in an IMP Poker
and Diet Coke on the side.
and Diet Coke on the side.
C&D XXV Reserve Dawn in a Radice Silk Cut 55
LJ Peretti B-94 in a MM Charles Town Landing cob (one of their collaborations with C&D)
Bag End from the Country Squire - in this filtered green Big Ben.
Smoking some Folklore in a Falcon with some water on the side. Listening to the kids play and argue.
Near the first quarter of this bowl of year 2019 C&D Yorktown in a smooth medium bend 2021 Peterson POTY Terracotta 4AB No.108/500 military mount with a silver cap and a tapered black vulcanite AB stem. Getting ready to watch the Yankees-Twins game.
Some old crystal-y Dunhill Three Year Matured Virginia in a Briarlee Illustrious, headed home.
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